Small Changes For Health

Your Small Change for week 2:  Make sure that you establish one SMART health-related goal for yourself.

Goal setting is one of the ways you can ensure that you accomplish the things you have planned. Goal setting can be particularly effective in changing to healthier behaviors and improving your health status. The most useful goals are SMART ones. Those are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Applying the principles of SMART goal setting will help you set realistic health goals you can achieve.

Using the SMART Principles for Goal-Setting

SMART is an acronym for the key principles for effective goal setting.  Each of the five principles in the SMART acronym is an important component in your goal:

• S –  is for specific.  It identifies a specific event or action that will take place.
• M – is for measurable.  It quantifies the amount of change to be achieved or is how you can tell when the goal is completed/met.
• A – is for achievable.  It is realistic and doable given available resources.
• R – is for relevant.  It is related to your personal health status and needs.
• T – is for time-bound.  It must be completed by a specific time.

Here are some examples of SMART goals:

• In the next four months, I will reduce my body weight from 162 pounds to 146 pounds.
• By the end of the year, I will reduce my blood pressure from 130 over 90 to 120 over 80.
• By the end of October, I will have reduced my cholesterol from 212 to below 200.
• By the end of July, I will completely quit smoking.

If you look closely, each goal above is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Now it’s time to make your own SMART goal.  Follow the steps below:

• Step 1 – What specifically do you want to accomplish or improve with your health?
• Step 2 – How much change or improvement do you want to see?
• Step 3 – Can you do this?  Is it realistic?
• Step 4 – Is it related to your current health status and needs?
• Step 5 – When do you plan to have this change accomplished or completed?
• Step 6 – Now, if you answered “yes” in Steps 3 and 4, you can take the information from Steps 1, 2, and 5 and put it together to make a SMART goal.

Congratulations! You’ve just set a SMART goal to improve your health!

What are your SMART goals? Let us know by leaving a comment!